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Don Layton, vice chairman at JP Morgan and once viewed as a possible successor to Bill Harrison, chairman and chief executive, is to leave the bank once it has completed its merger with BancOne.

Layton, 54, has changed his mind about taking up a senior role at the new bank to be formed by the $55bn (€45bn) combination of JP Morgan and BancOne.

He had agreed to oversee finance, risk management and technology and report to Jamie Dimon, who will be president of the combined bank and is expected to succeed Harrison in 2005.

Layton, who holds $30m worth of JP Morgan shares, said: "After nearly thirty years here and experience running most of the major businesses of JP Morgan Chase, I have decided that directly managing businesses is what I love to do."

The decision to leave comes after a 29-year career at the bank. Layton headed investment banking alongside Jeff Boisi in the years immediately after the merger with Chase in 2000. He was moved aside and Boisi was sacked after two difficult years which culminated in the bank's implication in the Enron' scandal during 2002.

In July 2002 Layton was among executives who testified in the US congress as JP Morgan faced accusation that it aided Enron's fraud and ultimate collapse by helping the company disguise more than $8bn of debts as regular "pre-pay" commodity transactions.

Executives then argued JP Morgan had done nothing wrong. But one year later JP Morgan was fined and forced to apologise for its "mistakes" in its dealings with Enron in a settlement with regulators.

Since 2002 Layton has headed retail services for JP Morgan during which the bank's financial performance and share price have recovered.

Harrison said: "Don has been a great leader of this firm, who will be sorely missed. He has made many valuable contributions, starting with Manufacturers Hanover and culminating in his leadership of our retail businesses and his work on the merger integration with Bank One."